Slicing machines of the type contemplated herein are often used for cutting a food product of a generally large size such as fillets (or slabs) of fish, meat or other food products into cubes, e.g., to be used for canning. The machine is preferably of the type that has the capability of performing three dimensional slicing, that is it will cut the food product to a determined width, height and length of cube having the dimensions desired for further processing.
A slicing machine as generally described above is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,954 (Ser. No. 063,402). This patent is owned by the assignee of the present invention. As previously stated, the disclosure of this patent is incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.
More recently there has become a need to slice or dice food products such as fillets having a much greater width into cube like pieces having a determined width, height and length. This presents a problem for the cutoff or slicing blade(s). Whereas the blade pivots (slices) down through the fillet with the outer portion of the cutting edge trailing the inner portion, the wider the fillet, the longer it takes the blade to go through the width of the fillet. The fillet preferably continues to move relative to the cutoff or slicing blades as it is being sliced and the fillet, therefore, pushes against the blade as the blade travels down through the food product. This is not a problem if the blade rapidly slices through the fillet but achieving the desired speed is far more difficult with a blade sufficiently large to slice a wider fillet.
Also, whereas the path of the pivoting blade is a circle having a radius defined by the length of the blade from pivot point to its outer tip, a longer blade, e.g., two feet in length, will pivot through a circle that has a four foot diameter. Guards have to be provided and all of the remaining components, including the machine base or support, have to be built around the four foot plus circular area of the pivoting blade. This even creates a problem as to machine height. The desirable cutting width may easily exceed the nominal 20 inches provided by the two foot blade.